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soulful eyes (I hope I still do!), which in the psychedelic days was the only qualification you needed, I guess, to make harpsichord kit parts (I graduated from the sweeping up part pretty quickly) that made me believe it was possible to actually live the life of a writer. ... At the time, Zuckermann
Harpsichords was housed in the first floor of a small, quirky 19th century building on Charles Street. Michael not only gave me a job, he gave me a tiny apartment upstairs. The whole operation employed about five girls, who drilled pin blocks, used a
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and had just been named by the venerable 'New York Times' as a literary outlaw? I got invitations to go everywhere with everybody--but the problem was that in reality, I was a pretty much uneducated, inexperienced Jewish kid from the Bronx with an admittedly nasty streak, but I was scared to death of
152:
As a writer, I have been rescued more than once in my life. The first time was by a high school
English teacher who told me, that I'd better not read my poetry to the rest of the class (a bit too much East Village raunch, I guess, for my classmates) but encouraged me to be a writer, because while my
214:
The film producer, who lived in a carriage house on the lane behind the harpsichord workshop, had to walk through our space every day to get his mail, and he began stopping by the blackboard to read my poetry. One day, he said something to me like, You know, that's pretty good. You ought to try to
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It was the harpsichord kit factory where I worked, the long-lost
Greenwich Village of artists and gay bars and roller-skating queens, along with my neighbor, a film producer, who introduced me to a community of writers, and my boss, Michael Zuckermann , who gave me the job because he said I had
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In the then-current rating system, "X" meant a film too graphic for those under 17 to be admitted, even with an accompanying parent. Thus to call a book of poems "XX", with double X, was strong language. The
Kennedy review (February 17, 1974), along with others from the time, can be read at
266:
The "double X" warning made me briefly notorious and from the Sunday morning that review came out and then on for a long time, my phone didn't stop ringing. You have to remember this was 1973; still the hippie years, with disco and the club scene on the horizon. The
203:
The active artistic surroundings of
Greenwich Village led to her being recognized and encouraged as a poet. The film producer mentioned in the quotations given here was named Harrison Starr; he had been executive producer for the notable counterculture film
756:. The idea that America would soon experience a political revolution bringing social justice was common among young people at that time, though it is not clear from the quotation whether Lerman is actually attributing this belief to her youthful self.
199:, but also worked on eccentric machines that Michael had made himself out of sewing machine parts ... Sometimes we ran out of parts and I was supposed to write what we needed on a blackboard. Instead, ... I used the blackboard to write poems.
694:. McFarland and Co., pp. 144–148. Partly autographical, with an account of her return to writing poetry after a 25-year hiatus; also discussion of the embarrassment caused by constantly monitoring her life experience for ideas for poems.
324:. She reports a second "rescue", long after the first by her high school teacher; this was "by my current publisher Sarabande, who asked me, after a decades-long hiatus, if I'd like to try to write poetry again. It turned out that I would."
425:; i.e. unrhymed with no definite pattern of scansion. There appears nevertheless to be some regularity in the distribution of stressed syllables in the line. The poems occasionally begin with one or two lines of traditional
251:, had harsh words for Lerman's technique as a poet and, more controversially, hinted at criticism of Lerman's choice of subject matter, which included illegal drugs and lesbian sexuality. Drawing on the recently introduced
345:
wrote, "Eleanor Lerman's poems have sociological savvy, philosophical rue, historical recognition, and vernacular resilience. They sing a song that is bravely gloomy, but they sing it with a fierce and earned dignity."
215:
get your work published. It had never occurred to me that was possible until he suggested it. ... Since I had no idea how to actually get a book published, I took the manuscript of poems I had and sent them to
304:(all still very important, extraordinary writers, I must add) and while they couldn't have been kinder to me and more helpful, I was scared of them too. I thought, I'll never be able to do what these guys do.
810:, is dedicated to the "harpsichordettes", her fellow workers; and memories of the time appear in the poem "The Farm in Winter", quoted below, and at greater length in the short story "Civilization", from
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Elsewhere Lerman has complained of the personal cost (distraction, the annoyance of friends) of collecting the mental material of her poems from everyday experience; see "Being a poet", cited below.
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Although Lerman published a second book in 1975, she eventually withdrew from her literary career and undertook a more conventional life with marriage and (nonliterary) job.
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that I answered in 1970 when I was eighteen years old and looking for a job so I could support myself in the city, where I was headed to join the revolution. ...
262:
Lerman describes her experience of youthful fame as "devastating"—not as a result of
Kennedy's criticism, but rather from the burden of notoriety it created:
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360:, Lerman ventures into speculative fiction with a story that involves radios, aliens, a bartender at Kennedy Airport, and a dog with unusual ancestry.
46:
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Her fame also led Lerman to become acquainted with some of the leading literary figures of the time, which had a daunting effect on her morale:
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is frequent; i.e. the material is often divided into lines at a point that would not correspond to natural pause locations in speech.
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806:"One Writer's Life", cited above. The harpsichord workshop is remembered affectionately in Lerman's writings. Her first book,
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The pin block is a solid slab of maple that holds the tuning pins in place. One hole must be drilled, carefully, for each pin.
353:, the author has experimented with creating a web site devoted specifically to the book and its contents, including excerpts.
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379:, and in 2006 her fiction collection "Observers and Other Stories" was published by the Lesbian publisher Artemis Press.
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Lerman probably errs here; the workshop was at 115 Christopher Street, rendered later in fiction by Lerman as "Charles".
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or various other notables of the time, who better to have on your arm than a twenty-one-year old poet who dressed like
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690:"Being a poet: an embarrassing pursuit", in Carol Smallwood, Colleen S. Harris, Cynthia Brackett-Vincent (2012)
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The verse is crammed with specific, vivid references to the real world; for example, the tools and harpsichord
386:, the 2002 Joy Bale Boone Award for Poetry, the 2006 Milton Dorfman Poetry Prize, and a fiction grant from the
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A steady stream of work has since followed, along with a variety of forms of recognition. Her fourth book,
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861:"Strange Life: Eleanor Lerman Interview". See also the published essay "Being a poet", cited below.
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Lerman wrote poetry while in high school, with the encouragement of a sympathetic teacher:
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Source: "One Writer's Life (or, Call Me, Andy)", an autobiographical essay posted 2009 at
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367:, just outside New York City and not far from her childhood community of Far Rockaway.
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1004:"Monsters and Memory", 2017 autobiographical essay from the "Cockeyed Pessimist" blog
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and in 2018 received an
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around
Sheridan Square and down on West Street were packed. If you were
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239:, attracted positive critical attention and indeed was nominated for a
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I ended up meeting some of the day's most important writers including
223:, which I did, and in 1973, they published my first book of poetry.
120:(born 1952) is an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
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818:, the main character assembles a 'Guttenberg' harpsichord kit (
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John W. Campbell
Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
18:
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The source is a web-posted interview, evidently from 2014:
182:, that produced and shipped kits from which amateurs built
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mentioned in the conclusion of "The Farm in Winter", from
390:. In 2007, she received a Literature Fellowship from the
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Much later (2001), her career as a writer resumed when
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The Game Cafe: Stories of New York City in Covid Time
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in 2006, given by the
American Academy of Poets and
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At age 18 she left home and moved from the Bronx to
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995:"Interview with Nickole Brown of Sarabande Books"
280:all these people. I stopped answering the phone.
166:Person wanted to sweep up in harpsichord factory.
467:mystical tools: the plane, the saw, the plectrum
461:to serve, harmoniously, the more eternal seasons
475:in the time before everything, on a perfect day
455:generations of yourself, a creator, who rescues
452:lean and skillful, born ten times into magical
382:Lerman is also the recipient of the inaugural
464:of music. And I am going home to you and your
8:
986:"Eleanor Lerman Interview by Gavin J. Grant"
472:and I am going home to you, in the long ago,
458:wood from the growing seasons and teaches it
449:And in my mind there comes a picture of you:
838:http://www.enotes.com/topics/eleanor-lerman
736:From "Author's Statement", web site of the
520:. University of Massachusetts Press. 1975.
186:, at the time a minor cultural phenomenon.
178:Lerman's job was in a workshop, founded by
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429:, and drift toward pentameter elsewhere.
320:commissioned her third volume of poetry,
851:"Strange Life: Eleanor Lerman Interview"
49:of all important aspects of the article.
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45:Please consider expanding the lead to
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153:work wasn't his taste, it was good.
1054:21st-century American women writers
500:. Wesleyan University Press. 1973.
822:); and in "The River House", from
161:, where she found an unusual job:
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341:magazine. In awarding the prize,
243:. Not all reviews were positive;
786:"One Writer's Life", cited above
388:New York Foundation for the Arts
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957:Science Fiction Awards Database
738:National Endowment for the Arts
555:Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds
392:National Endowment for the Arts
329:Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds
37:may be too short to adequately
47:provide an accessible overview
1:
394:. In 2011, she was awarded a
375:She has been nominated for a
140:, and is of Jewish heritage.
568:The Sensual World Re-Emerges
333:Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
312:Resumption of writing career
1029:Poets from New York (state)
824:Observers and Other Stories
668:, The Permanent Press, 2015
614:Observers and Other Stories
81:1952 (age 71–72)
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132:, and raised there and in
570:, Sarabande Books, 2010,
540:. Sarabande Books. 2001.
221:Wesleyan University Press
1039:American lesbian writers
583:, Mayapple Press, 2015,
517:Come the Sweet by and by
953:"sfadb: Eleanor Lerman"
812:The Blonde on the Train
672:The Stargazer's Embassy
627:The Blonde on the Train
616:, Artemis Press, 2002,
596:, Mayapple Press, 2024
557:Sarabande Books, 2005,
411:The Stargazer's Embassy
351:The Blonde on the Train
168:That was the ad in the
128:Lerman was born in the
1034:English-language poets
680:, Mayapple Press, 2024
674:, Mayapple Press, 2017
662:, Mayapple Press, 2011
629:Mayapple Press, 2009,
537:The Mystery of Meteors
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442:The Mystery of Meteors
349:For one of her books,
322:The Mystery of Meteors
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253:system of film ratings
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642:Mayapple Press, 2022
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396:Guggenheim Fellowship
377:Lambda Literary Award
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1049:American women poets
882:Blondeonthetrain.com
365:Long Beach, New York
255:, Kennedy described
136:. She is a lifelong
1044:American LGBT poets
922:on October 16, 2011
241:National Book Award
180:Wolfgang Zuckermann
594:Slim Blue Universe
249:The New York Times
602:978-1-952781-17-9
427:iambic pentameter
421:Lerman writes in
231:and its aftermath
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401:Lerman won the
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259:as "XX rated".
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207:Zabriskie Point
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124:Life and career
111:Poetry, fiction
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581:Strange Life
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134:Far Rockaway
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34:lead section
1019:1952 births
302:Tom Pynchon
298:Philip Roth
273:Andy Warhol
144:Early years
1013:Categories
990:Indiebound
808:Armed Love
723:Kgbbar.com
699:References
622:0971726124
497:Armed Love
431:Enjambment
423:free verse
338:The Nation
331:, won the
257:Armed Love
237:Armed Love
229:Armed Love
138:New Yorker
90:Occupation
55:March 2022
916:"Nea.gov"
904:Btwof.com
871:Poets.org
712:Poets.org
193:table saw
39:summarize
962:June 30,
742:Arts.gov
740:, 2007,
666:Radiomen
444:(2001):
407:Radiomen
358:Radiomen
269:gay bars
210:(1970).
98:Language
926:May 12,
893:Newsday
438:plectra
102:English
941:Gf.org
654:Novels
646:
633:
620:
600:
587:
574:
561:
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524:
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489:Poetry
371:Awards
217:Viking
195:and a
108:Genres
93:Writer
814:. In
685:Essay
197:lathe
130:Bronx
964:2018
928:2011
796:IMDb
644:ISBN
631:ISBN
618:ISBN
598:ISBN
585:ISBN
572:ISBN
559:ISBN
542:ISBN
522:ISBN
502:ISBN
300:and
277:Cher
78:Born
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729:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
